“The upcoming window of action for deer reduction in Rock Creek Park will be November 15, 2016 through March 31, 2017. This is the fifth operational window for the Rock Creek Park White-tailed Deer Management Plan. Temporary night-time road closures will be in effect to provide for visitor and employee safety during reduction activities. Commuters, including cyclists, are advised to plan alternate routes.

Extensive safety measures will be in place to protect park visitors and neighbors during operations. Biologists, who are also highly trained firearms experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will be working under the direction of National Park Service (NPS) resource management specialists and in coordination with U.S. Park Police and local law enforcement to conduct reduction actions at night when the park is normally closed.

The following road closures in NW D.C. may be in effect from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. when operations are underway: (more…)

“Sighted on my run on Saturday morning: a red tail hawk perched on a branch, eating a rat for breakfast, at the corner of Euclid and Georgia Ave. Completely unperturbed by passersby. Glad that DC’s reputation as the third rattiest city is benefiting at least some of the local inhabitants!”

“Aside from the combinations of coyotes and eastern wolves making up most of the modern day eastern coyote’s genepools, a study in 2013 by mammalian biologist Dr. Javier Monzón revealed that some of the coyotes in the northeastern USA also have mild domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and western Great Plains gray wolf (Canis lupus nubilus) influences in their genepool, thus suggesting that the eastern coyote is actually a four-in-one hybrid of coyotes, eastern wolves, western gray wolves, and dogs; and that the hybrids living in areas with higher white-tailed deer density often have higher degrees of wolf genes than those living in urban environments. The addition of domestic dog genes may have played a minor role in facilitating the eastern hybrids’ adaptability to survive in human developed areas.”

This sounds like I need a shrink. But last Friday, I was walking on 7th St SE a block from the SE library and Eastern Market Metro station. I spotted something moving in a dark alley between two homes and when I focused my vision, I saw a large, as large as a golden retriever dog, CAT get up off the ground, turn and flee towards the backyards. The tail was long, black tipped and it touched the ground. The cat was in a dark shaded alley but it appeared to be grey or black. It was silent when it ran. I was so stunned, I stopped in my tracks. My companion saw it too and he wanted to run and find it but I stopped him. I called animal control, feeling like an screwball, but I saw what I saw! Perhaps some real screwball had raised a wild feline in their home and then let it go. I really want to know if anyone else has spotted this “cat”. Animal Control took the report, asking me over and over, the size of the animal I saw and said they would send someone out. Weird!!”